Evidence Insufficient for Multidisciplinary Postacute Rehabilitation for Adults With TBI

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Evidence Insufficient for Multidisciplinary Postacute Rehabilitation for Adults With TBI

Authors of a comparative effectiveness review released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report that the "body of evidence is not informative" regarding effectiveness or comparative effectiveness of multidisciplinary postacute rehabilitation for adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Multidisciplinary Postacute Rehabilitation for Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Adults examines 5 key questions related to characterizing the interventions, effectiveness and comparative effectiveness, minimal clinically important differences, sustainability of intervention effectiveness, and adverse events. The authors state that, "Although we found stronger evidence on the comparative effectiveness of different approaches to multidisciplinary postacute rehabilitation for participation outcomes, we found a limited number of eligible studies and no clear demonstration that one approach was superior to another."

The authors call for further research to "address methodological flaws common in these studies and further address effectiveness research questions."

APTA member Douglas E. Bidelspach, PT, MPT, served on the expert technical panel. Bidelspach also served as a peer reviewer with APTA member Karen Lohmann Siegel, PT, MA.

APTA has additional information available about evaluation and treatment of people postbrain injury on its TBI webpage.